Posts Tagged Windows 7

I’ve discovered this new (not so new it seems as it’s already in version 40 or something) fractal software a couple days ago called Visions of Chaos, and was having some good fun with it mostly with its simulations and the “genetic” mutations. Until I installed another trial copy in a PC with Windows 7 which is kind of my “main fractal workstation”. And it’s crashing like crazy, without any possible fix so far. Even setting it to work in compatibility mode doesn’t work. I guess it’s something about the 64-bit stuff, not sure yet. But it’s a pity, a very interesting software with such annoying bug(s). I was even considering registering it in the future although it’s a bit expensive mostly in the updates, 25% of the price of a new version just for a single update… and considering it’s in version 40 do the math and see how many upgrades existed so far. No thanks.

Edit: I’ve made it work with Windows 7. I had to uninstall the previous installation, then reinstall it in a different folder other than the (default) Program Files\Visions of Chaos folder. When the software asks you in what folder it should be installed, just remove the “Program Files” or the “Program Files (x386)” part of the install path and let it be installed at C:\Visions of Chaos instead (or any other custom folder you wish), this should work. It now doesn’t crash immediately after starting, but it still crashes quite often mostly while using the Genetics options. Annoying, but at least it’s working in Windows 7 pretty much the same way as it works in the Vista. If it wasn’t for all these crashes, it could be a very nice fractal software. Considering it’s in version 40, there shouldn’t be that many crashes like that. I guess.

I was very disappointed when one of my favourite fractal generators, Fractint, was not behaving nicely after I moved to Windows XP. No matter what I did, it refused to work. It sometimes barely worked in very low resolutions or something, but it used to lock up not too much after a few things were done.

After some Google searches (I’m not even sure if Google was so good in helping fixing things back then) I learned that it was because mostly of the lack of support for VESA graphic drivers starting with XP. What could I do? Nothing, or else try to use it with these low resolutions or these odd IBM presets (that somehow didn’t use the VESA I think, some of the presets at least) or the mysterious and unpredictable “render to disk” feature of Fractint.